"Britain's fight against climate breakdown may usually look like windfarms or solar energy. But on miles of Lancashire coast the frontline is rather more festive. Tens of thousands of discarded Christmas trees have been partially buried on beaches south of Blackpool as a frontier against rising sea levels. In a biting February wind, hundreds of volunteers haul the tinsel-free trees into shallow trenches and let nature do its work. Within weeks, or sometimes days, they morph into sand dunes to protect homes on the seafront."
"It might sound like a peculiar festive tradition but conservationists say their work is increasingly vital: since the mid-1800s, the Lancashire coast is believed to have lost 80% of its sand dunes due to the rapid growth of seaside towns such as Blackpool and Lytham St Annes. Sand dunes used to extend for miles and miles inland but we've colonised and built the towns so now they're a very thin fragment of what they used to be,"
Volunteers bury tens of thousands of discarded Christmas trees into shallow trenches on Lancashire beaches to rebuild sand dunes that protect seafront homes. The planted trees trap wind-blown sand and often form dunes within days or weeks. The practice began over three decades ago and has intensified in the past decade as sea levels have risen. The Lancashire coast has lost about 80% of its sand dunes since the mid-1800s due to coastal urban development. The UK has lost roughly 30% of its sand dunes since 1900 while sea levels have risen about 19.5cm, with two-thirds of that rise in the past 30 years. Increased storm surges accelerate dune loss and expose coastal housing.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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